Live Video

I have been playing around with producing live video multiplexed with the scoreboard output of PCS Pro.

To do this properly you really need professional grade cameras but these cost tens of thousands of pounds so I've been rummaging through my old kit boxes to see what works.

I started with a pair of webcams, one with a mobile phone telephoto lens attached similar to this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Universal-Telescope-Telephoto-Camera-Samsung/dp/B01J3Q6JQA/ref=sr_1_15

The result is surprisingly effective for an outlay of £20 or so, but not really good enough.
Here is the video.

https://youtu.be/Q398F5Plhd8?t=1h33m54s


Last weekend I resurrected and old Sony Handycam (the one with tapes) with a proper Carl Zeiss lens. We are now into the realm of optical rather than digital zoom and the results are a significant improvement.
I didn't quite get the aspect ratio and canvas size correct which accounts for the rather tall players.

https://youtu.be/bvZeTb9fYcI?t=5h55m30s

 

So how do we put all this together?

There are a number of sources involved
1 The scoreboard output from PCS Pro
2 The video stream
3 The audio stream. I never have this switched on, the last thing I want to be broadcasting is the conversations on the balcony!

We also need a bit of software and service.

YouTube account.
Copy of Open Broadcaster Software - this is free and open source.
A piece of software to turn the PCS scoreboard output into a bitmap.


We also require piece of hardware to turn the analogue AV signal from the camera into digital, these are commonly known as USB video grabbers and cost about £10.

In OBS we add the video stream, the bitmap source, our YouTube account details, click the Start Streaming button and we are live broadcasting so all your members can view the match wherever they are.

My old Sony also has a IEEE 1394 (FireWire) interface which in theory should provide much higher quality video since the encoding is done in hardware on the camera rather than in software on the laptop. Unfortunately my only laptop which has FireWire is from the Windows XP generation and isn't man enough for the job of broadcasting. I will be hunting around for an alternative over the coming season.

Next weekend I hope to get the aspect ratio correct and I will update with the results.

The High Wycombe live feed can be found at

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD5m18VOaY4Kywgk8wHP_zg